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Yeah, Okada's writing strikes me as very, very precise with diction (this usually shows up on a rewatch), full of cutesy stuff that takes on secondary meanings (again usually on a rewatch), but nothing I've seen her given primary credits for has been all that well-planned from start to finish.

It's not even that it's not well-planned, it's that the focus is all over the place, or rather, there's no focus. It's stuff happening and characters behaving as the plot demands, without an inner logic, and not even a clear focus. Something happens and then we forget about it until it conveniently becomes important again; here's this character, now let's forget about him for five episodes until he conveniently becomes important again; here's this other character, she normally behaves like this, unless we need her to behave like that; something very important affects important characters very deeply - let's not talk about it because it would be inconvenient for the plot. Also, main characters? who cares about the main characters.

Quote:

Originally Posted by miketyson

I can take a bittersweet-or-worse end in stride, but it's hard to get psyched up to see mopey characters acting irrationally. Just a preference thing I guess.

Nah, I can understand that - I didn't like this ep as much as other episodes before, but I guess I'm shallow enough to get by enjoying all the extra tidbits.

I can get behind all of that. I think she's very good with words and keeping her webs of words well-organized across a series, but not so good at making events flow naturally. She'd work better with a writing partner I think, I get the sense she's usually given a lot of control over her own output. She might be better off trying to write novels or short fiction, I wonder how much of what we see as her problems are her not being that cut-out for writing within the constraints of 22 minute episodes (and with around a third or more of each EVOL episode given over to combat, too...).

In any case, the fun just wasn't there for me this week, next week doesn't look much better from the preview (though we do know what those are worth). I'm not dropping the show, it's just seeming like fun times are over and the dark times have at least a few episodes' worth of stuff to get through.

well it looks like fighting is all zessica got going for her and now thats lost as well. she even lost a friend she could talk to. hopefully she will come to her sense and realize love stories are not all that they are cracked up to be

They should rename this episode to Daddy issues instead of Rare Igura
1. Mix's problem of seeing every boy as her father and despising them.
2. Mikonos problems which cause her to be timid and self loathing. Also she chases the "bad boy." All of these are typical signs of girl with daddy issues. It must be female writers cause this has got female written all over it XD.
3. Amata who is connected with his father without his knowledge but Mykage manipulates an image of his mother in the clouds. Izumo realizes it's his son.

Unlike other people, I like the curveball that its Mix that got kidnapped. Screw Zessica, it was Andy who needed a wake up call. At least Zessica tries to do something... all Andy did was go emo and dig himself a hole. Might just be me though, as "Digging The Hole and then Climbing Out" is one of my favourite fanfics ever, and I thought we'd see some progression on his front this episode. So yeah, Andy got his just desserts.

I'd say this episode was about the same quality as the last few, on the bright side none of the main characters is effectively removed from the cast for a couple episodes. I'd like to see why Mikono's father acts the way he does in the next episode though. The way I see it, he's either genuinely a dick or he's overprotective of his daughter in a very stupid way, the latter being less likely. Downside, it shows how incompetent everyone is without fudo around.

The preview didn't look too bad, Andy's response is understandable, he wants someone to blame for Mix getting abducted. Downside, Fudo Zen wasn't in the preview and likely won't come back to neo deava until he gets his hands on the original vectors.

It was great to see a smart, competent, powerful antagonist actually overcome the heroes for a change. It helped that Izumo's mecha had this very menacing but majestic look to it. It really did look like a mecha for a fighting King or Head of State.

Like Vena said, I have to wonder why Izumo didn't take matters into his own hands sooner. But I guess he's the sort of guy that wants loads and loads of recon data on his opponents before he heads off to face them.

Now, I had less issue with Zessica in this episode than some did, although I do feel quite sorry for the girl. Her emotional state is clearly very bad.

This is my take on things:

1. Zessica changed her look to be more like Mikono's, and it is making Zessica more popular with guys in general. But that's not exactly what Zessica wants. She wants to be more popular with Amata in particular, and that doesn't seem to be happening. So Zessica is feeling increasingly depressed. Her heart is set on one man and one man alone, and she can't get over him, even when other men show interest in her. In fact, becoming more popular with other men likely makes Zessica realize this more, which leads to a sense of romantic hopelessness for her. So...

2. Zessica decides to totally forget about romance, and just focus on being a warrior, since that's something she's normally good at. But...

3. She gets told off for being hotheaded this episode (since she's overdoing it to try to compensate for her romantic hurts/insecurities), and at that point, I think that Zessica just feels flat-out worthless. So in the spur of the moment she decides to offer to sacrifice herself for the greater good, as she probably rationalizes it. She doesn't think that she has anything left to live for, so she's going to at least find some worth in being a sacrifice for the sake of others.

Zessica is continuing to remind me more and more of a certain character from Madoka Magica, but I'll leave that discussion for elsewhere/later.

But the anime throws a curve-ball at us by having Izumo make off with Mix instead of Zessica. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I guess it was a great moment for Mix, but it does leave both her and Zessica in very bad places for different reasons.

On a separate note, I liked how this episode tied several characters together through shared father issues. Learning a bit more about Mikono's personal background was nice.

My main criticism of this episode, and of most recent episodes of this anime, is that they often don't flow well from one to the next to the next. Kagura being off-screen this long is impossible to ignore, and probably leaves viewers naturally puzzled as to what the heck has happened to him.

The lack of more interaction between Amata and Zessica is troubling given how there's still a lot of issues between those two, and much the same is true of Amata and Mikono. Yes, Amata and Mikono had a conversation in this episode, but it brought us back to the Kagura issue rather than addressing the Zessica issue. Doing that just reminds me of how there's quite a few hanging plot threads left in this anime. I hope that Okada can manage to sew them up well.

its getting annoying that we don't know anything about zessica's background while amata and his mommy issues and mikono and her family issues are being highlighted enough. i already get that so just tell us about zessica's past already. maybe she is an orphan or she never knew her parents or she was secretly brought to vega from altair. whatever it is just out with it. she wants love but why? she wanted romantic love but she never recognized the sisterly one mix obviously had for her.

you know they can do mix-zessica backstory of how hey met up and became friends at the academy. so much BG there for those 2. i really liked mix-zessica friendship feeling even though mix was a bitch in the beginning.

What Izumo just did reeks of desperation. Isn't he a least suspicious that Mykage is the source of their problems?

pretty sure he full well knows it. He just can't do anything. That's why he tried to resort to negotiations instead. Something that may be able to put a wrench in Mikage's plans since it wouldn't give a reason for Mikage to keep picking fights in the world to looks for Aquarion.

It would be nice if we got an short clip of an episode dedicated to how Izumo and Alicia met and fell in love. Although not quite the same scale but I could imagine it being similar to Apollonius and Celiane. Izumo travels to Vega to fight (as mentioned by the old battlefield comment) and falls in love with Alicia on Vega. Conceives Amata then something happens to drift them apart then Izumo wants her back but she goes into a suspended state once she reaches Altair

There's a lot of holes in my theory. I can see it being done another way but knowing Izumo is Amata's father I can't help that he will die while Amata finds out he's his father.

It seems like Izumo didn't know which Rare Igura he was after or rather who, he was just relying on his Igura com which indicated he had a selection of candidates but it seemed like it would only react when the girl's were (being emotional (had more attitude? lol) But it didn't react to Mikono (maybe cos she was in Aquarion?) I dont think Izumo intentionally wanted to take Mix away but she was pretty much being chased and then captured by Izumo's soldier (so does that mean 'strong willed' women are RARE?? Haha)...But if you guys noticed in Mix's ED pic she has chains around her wrists (like prisoners)...I only just noticed the other day ... And Izumo's sparkling blue eyes!! I was like AWWW XD